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Welcome to the final Mixtape Sessions of 2014 and what a treat this set is!  We got a lot to cover here so let’s get right to it.
Kicking things off is “Give Me Sunshine” by Santa Maradona F.C. featuring Lucy Spraggan.  Think of the first time you heard that “feel-good” song on the radio and your body’s endorphins just suddenly flooded your brain with all sorts of goodwill and happy feelings.  Maybe you recently got that feeling when you heard Pharell’s “Happy” or perhaps back in the day with Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do.”  “Give Me Sunshine” is simply one of those songs.  A simple narrative that tells a story set to a bouncy beat goes a long way in my book.
“Sunshine” bleeds into  EelkeKleijn’s “Mistakes I've Made,” which is set to a backdrop of an old western theme with a deep house beat.  The song recounts all the past mistakes made in his life but does reconcile that he “gets stronger” and leaves the question if there is a future.  Keeping up with the indie-house inspiration, I paired this song with “Netzwerk (Falls Like Rain)” by Klangkarussell (another soothing deep house tune with a surprising Afro-choir dropped in during the chorus).
From here, we begin a transition from indie-deep-house (Soul For You) to more soulful deep house “Mood For You” by Knox and Moss.
The big surprise here is the Justin Faust rework of Janet Jackson’s early millennial hit “Someone To Call My Lover.”  While I've been a bit skeptical of the gender-bending vocal remixes that are currently the trend, it works surprisingly well here.
Sam Smith doesn’t need any more praise, so I’ll move on to Zhu whose anonymity and solid productions have quickly raised his or her’s recognition since being introduced earlier this year.  “Faded” is a deep and moody deep house that is intriguing while at the same time comes across as a bit disturbing.  I love this song but can’t help picturing it in some dark seedy movie about a serial killer LOL.  It gives me chills.
BIG HEADS UP to How To Dress Well and the Cyril Hahn remix of his “Precious Love.”  This is a sweet slice of R&B electronica-pop and shows a budding untapped talent that deserves to be plucked for greater things.  At the very least we need to get him some Pro Tools to master his music, but don’t let that distract from the true talent invoked in his music.
Perhaps the one song that not only struck a chord with me but I've had on repeat for over a month is Birdy’s “Skinny Love.”  Sebastian Carter does the remix honor here by turning in an addictive and hypnotic beat that sucks you in with Birdy’s alluring vocals.  He also buries the lyrics in the beats with the exception of
"And I told you to be patientAnd I told you to be fineAnd I told you to be ba...